How do I figure out how much to price my art at? I have the spreadsheet that has been shared on here before. Most things I cut from 16ga. It has the pricing at .15/inch and .15/pierce. I am doubling the price of material, but since the pieces are mostly under 1ft square it doesn't add up to much. The detailed things have 150-200 cutting inches and 40+ pierces. It seems like $45-$50 is kind of high for something that small, but the pieces are pretty detailed.I know I wouldn't buy much of anything I make for the prices I figure, but I'm cheap and I own the table so I can make what I want for basically free.

Depends on the piece and your market. Remember that the 0.15 per pierce and per inch are purely arbitrary, and I doubt anyone could tell you how they came up with the figures in that spreadsheet.

That said, I price based on what I think the market will pay, and have been doing pretty well. Most of my stuff is cut in 14ga and isn't ridiculously complex, and I'm usually around $25/sf until you get over about 4 square feet, at which point I may drop a little. That's with no painting/finishing- just a coat of spraycan clear over the hot rolled steel. For example, the 15" tall piece in the attached pic sells for $35, and I can't keep enough of them on the table at the farmers market. It's less than $3 of material, 3 minutes to cut, 5 minutes to grind, and 5 minutes to tack the hangers on the back and shoot the clear. If they want a custom name, it takes less than 5 minutes to create that, and I keep the file in case someone else wants one later.

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I could probably sell that in this market for about $25-30 at most. Non-personalized stuff doesn't sell as well in my area as personalized or area-specific stuff, just because people can buy similar stuff at Kirklands or Hobby Lobby for $10-15 (although from thinner material).

Not sure why you're putting a clear coat over the black and red- that's a step you could cut out with no effect on the finished product, IMO

djreiswig wrote:It seems like for the difference in detail, my piece should cost more than your state one of similar size.I don't always clear coat. You're probably right, not real point.

You would think so, but it's all perception- if they can find it on Pinterest, it's not "unique" or "personal", so they don't value it as much. If you can get more than $25-30 for it, that's awesome, but I know I couldn't get it here.

I hear you. So, you just kind of have to feel the market out. How do you know if it is worth your time to cut something without knowing what you're gonna get out of it? I guess you make 1 and see what it will sell for, and then if you don't feel like it is worth your time, don't make any more.

We did our first craft fair two weeks ago and our first farmers market this past Saturday. We cut probably $300 of steel into a bunch of different stuff so we'd have a variety of products just to see what sold. Based on the response so far (including a number of custom orders prior to and since the farmers market on Saturday), we've tweaked the stuff we'll have available when we go back to the farmers market on the 10th.

For example, we had a GA outline with the name of one of the big subdivisions nearby, and it sold immediately, followed by half a dozen people asking later if we had one with that name on it. We'd only cut one out for each of the big subdivisions to see how they sold, but we'll bring at least three next week now that we know people want that one and have said they'll buy it next time.

We also had some smaller 7" tall GA cutouts with just a heart and no text, and had a customer ask us to cut him 5 of them with his city name in them so he can give them as gifts. We cut those last night (made $60 in about 15 minutes, including cleanup), and cut a few extra for the booth while we were at it.

I'll cut one copy of just about anything to see if it sells. Worst case I'm out about $3 in material and 15 minutes of time. I can always give it to someone as a birthday/wedding/housewarming gift if it doesn't sell.